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Romanslavic
Romanslavic is a hybrid Romance-Slavic language, rooted both in Old Church Slavonic and Latin branches. Basically, it uses Romance radicals in a strong Slavic sounding. Unlike Romanian, it incorporates more Slavic loans in its grammar and vocabulary (such as the lack of articles) and may not seem comprehensible to all Romance-language speakers at first sight. Within its fictitious universe, Romanslavic is spoken mainly in Volkarina (where it’s called volkarinski) and constituent republics of former Romanslavia (Latinslavija). Romanslavic was developed by screenwriter Pedro Aguiar, an amateur conlanger, for a couple of his screenplays. According to its own fictitious history, Romanslavic has very recent normatization, since until the end of the 19th century, its usage was forbidden by the Ottomans and Russians. While these empires ruled Romanslavia, the language had only oral registry. Only after the 1860s, a group of scholars in Western Europe Ocidental would have begun registering the first written records of the language. An ancient variant can also be found among peasant communities who live in Romanslavian plains. Alphabets There are essentially three ways of writing Romanslavic: Cyrillic, Roman and transliterated Roman. Volkarinian Romanslavic uses Cyrillic alphabet, whilst all variants else use Roman script (with the additional characters used by Northern Slavic languages). When transliterating, Volkarinians prefer to use Y for “short i” and digraph KH for “voiced h”, but other speakers use J and X, respectively. * А, Б, Ч, Д, Е, Ф, Г, Х, И, Ј, К, Л, М, Н, О, П, Ц, Р, С, Т, У, В, Ш, З, Ђ * A, B, Č, D, E, F, G, X, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, C, R, S, T, U, V, Š, Z, þ * A, B, TCH, D, E, F, G, KH, I, Y, K, L, M, N, O, P, TS, R, S, T, U, V, SH, Z, TH There’s a difference in pronunciation between urban, cosmopolitan accent in Prastova and Xristina (the largest cities in Volkarina) and that of the countryside, as well as other regions where Romanslavic is spoken: while the earliests recognize J as a semivowel “i” sound and V as a semivowel “u”, the latter pronounce them as “zh” and “v”, respectively. Romanslavic also has the “þ” or “th” (thorn) consonant, just like in English. * А, A, A (a'') as in “jar” * Б, B, B (''be) - same as in English * Ч, Č, TCH (tche) - like ‘ch’ in “chair” * Д, D, D (de) - as in “deed” * Е, E, E (e'') - as in “bed” * Ф, F, F (''fe) - same as in English * Г, G, G (ge) - as in “good” (always hard sound, never soft like “general”) * Х, X, KH (khe) - like ‘h’ in “home” * И, I, I (i'') - like ‘ee’ in “bee” * Ј, J, Y (''i shurt) - like ‘y’ in “yankee” (semivowel sound; may sound like “zh” in rural dialects) * К, K, K (ka) - as in “kart” (always a hard sound, never soft like “key”) * Л, L, L (le) - same as in English * М, M, M (me) - same as in English * Н, N, N (ne) - same as in English * О, O, O (o'') - as in “amok” (never an open sound like “hot”) * П, P, P (''pe) - same as in English * Ц, C, TS (tse) - like ‘zz’ in “pizza” * Р, R, R (arot) - like ‘tt’ in “butter” (in American accent) * С, S, S (se) - as in “sad” (always a soft sound, never hard like a Z) * Т, T, T (te) - as in “tone” (always a hard sound, never soft like “tea”) * У, U, U (u'') - like ‘oo’ in “tool” * В, V, V (''uve) - like ‘w’ in “wait” (semivowel sound; may sound like “v” in rural dialects) * Ш, Š, SH (she) - like ‘sh’ in “show” * З, Z, Z (ze) - same as in English * Ђ, þ, TH (the) - as in “thin” Grammar #The words have Romance radicals, whenever possible and euphonic. #There are no articles. #There are two genders - male and female - and two numbers - singular and plural. These are applied only for nouns and pronouns. Adjetives follow no gender. #Nouns ending in consonants or e'' are male; when ending in other vowel except ''e, they are female. #Plural (of nouns) is made by adding an i'' to nouns ending in consonants, and an ''je to those ending in vowels; adjectives, pronouns, and adverbs do not declinse in gender or number. #Cases are nominative, genitive (adding sufix –av), instrumentative (adding sufixo –vak) and acusative (adding sufix –le). All else use prepositions. #When conjugating first person in plural (we = mje), one must add an “''u''” if it's inclusive (in other words, if the speaker includes himself among the subject of the sentence). #Ortography is regular: the pronunciation of almost any word can be perfectly predicted from its written form. Exceptions lie on phonetic stress in some words borrowed from other tongues. Romanslavic is a relatively inflected language, with a two-gender system and about thirty conjugated forms per verb, but small noun declension and limited pronominal declension. Almost all verbs are perfectly regular, except for bit (to be), abit (to have/to exist), ajit (to go), and xasit (to do/to make). Romanslavic syntax is generally Subject Verb Object, though variations are common. Romanslavic is a right-branching language which uses prepositions, and usually places adjectives before nouns. It is also a pro-drop language (allows the deletion of pronouns when pragmatically unnecessary) and verb-framed. Vocabulary Most of Romanslavic lexicon derives from vulgar Latin roots, especially those of East Romance branches. However, due to centuries under Russian and Ottoman rule, the language of Romanslavians has also suffered heavy influence from Slavic and Turkic tongues, which is reflected in the large amount of loans from these languages into Romanslavic vocabulary. There is also a significant influence of French words in Romanslavic lexicon, due to the cultural ties during the language restoration between the 1860s and the 1910s. These are mostly artifitial interventions, though, and Romanslavs speakers have roughly one alternate word for every Gallicism. For more vocabulary, check also the Romanslavic phrasebook. Numbers * Zero = Nul * One = Adun * Two = Dova * Three = Tre * Four = Četra * Five = Pjent * Six = Sjeks * Seven = Sep * Eight = Vosep * Nine = Nub * Ten = Dak * Eleven = Dakadun * Twelve = Dakdova * Thirteen = Daktre * Fourteen = Dakčetra * Fifteen = Dakpent * Sixteen = Daksjeks * Seventeen = Daksep * Eighteen = Dakvosep * Nineteen = Daknub * Twenty = Dovadak * Twenty one = Dovadak-adun * Twenty two = Dovadak-dova * Thirty = Tredak * Forty = Čedak * Fifty = Pendak * Sixty = Sjeksdak * Seventy = Sepdak * Eighty = Vosdak * Ninety = Nudak * Hundred = Sjento * Two Hundred = Dovsjento * Thousand = Milciača * One million = Miljon Ordinals: #First = Primskj #Second = Dovskj #Third = Treskj #Fifth = Pjentj #Sixth = Sjeksj #Seventh = Sepskj #Eighth = Vosepskj #Ninth = Nubskj #Tenth = Dakskj #Twentieth = Dovadakskj Fractions: #Half = Mid #One third = ''Tretke #One fourth = ''Četke #One fifth = ''Pendke Time & Calendar '''Units:' * Age = Aš * Millenium = Milak * Century = Sekle * Decade = Dekad * Year = Jarak * Month = Mest * Week = Sepmane * Day = Din * Hour = Čas * Half an hour = Midxor Months: * January = Yanvark * February = Fevralk * March = Mark * April = Aprelk * May = Majk * June = Yunk * July = Yulk * August = Avgust * September = Septemvre, Septak * October = Oktovre, Voseptak * November = Nubemvre, Nubtak * December = Disemvre, Disembrj Seasons: * Springtime = Prilet * Summer = Vera, Lete'' * Autumn, Fall = Osten * Winter = Xiver Feasts: * Christmas = Nativitast, Nartadin * New Year = Novj Jarak * Easter = Paskve * Birthday = Jaradin Days of the week: * Sunday = Domenik, Ponedin * Monday = Lundin * Tuesday = Mardin, Tredin * Wednesday = Merkudin, Čedin * Thursday = Jovedin, Pendin * Friday = Venerdin, Fesdin * Saturday = Subadin Times of the day: * Dawn = Alborat * Morning = Matina * Noon = Midin, Meridije * Afternoon = Dupova * Evening = Poskj, Večer * Night = Noč * Late night = Posnost Daily references: * Today = Sevod, Zadin * Yesterday = Xjer, Pridin * Tomorrow = Zademan, Vamorgi * Day before yesterday = Prixjer * Day after tomorrow = Dupo zademan * Other day = Avtredin Colors * Black = Čorna * White = Bela * Red = Rosa * Yellow = Jolta * Blue = Blava * Green = Zela * Violet = Mova * Orange = Portokala * Brown = Bravna * Grey = Grisa * Purple = Purpura * Pink = Roza Parts of the body * Body = Korp ** Flesh = Karna ** Skeleton = Skelet * Head = Kapita, Golov ** Face = Visaš *** Forehead = Front *** Cheek = Kota *** Hair = Kapeli, Kavolost **** Moustache = Mustaša **** Beard = Brada ** Nose = Nas ** Eye = Oskop ** Ear = Oizo ** Mouth = Gubok *** Lip = Labje *** Teeth = Denti *** Tongue = Lingve *** Throat = Gorga *** Larynx = Larinx * Neck = Kolar * Shoulder = Spala * Arm = Armle ** Ankle = Ševilje ** Fist = Munje ** Hand = Mana *** Finger = Dit * Chest = Pitrina ** Heart = Kor ** Rib = Kostel * Belly = Ventre ** Stomach = Ztomax ** Liver = Xepate ** Bladder = Vešig ** Bowels = Viskeri ** Womb = Utroba * Leg = Gambe ** Thigh = Kujš ** Knee = Gene ** Calf = Polpaka ** Heel = Talon ** Foot = Ped *** Toe = Ortel Romanslavic and other Romance languages In spite of the obvious lexical and grammatical similarities between Romanslavic and other Romance languages, it is not mutually intelligible with them to any practical extent. Romanslavic speakers will usually need some formal study of basic grammar and vocabulary, before being able to understand even the simplest sentences in those languages (and vice-versa): :Jela fermic samper fenastre pri po pranzat. (Romanslavic) :Ela fecha sempre a janela antes de jantar. (Portuguese) :Ela fecha sempre a fiestra antes de cear. (Galician) :Ella cierra siempre la ventana antes de cenar. (Spanish) :Ella tanca sempre la finestra abans de sopar. (Catalan) :Lei chiude sempre la finestra prima di cenare. (Italian) :Ea închide întotdeauna fereastra înainte de a cina. (Romanian) :Elle ferme toujours la fenêtre avant de dîner/souper. (French) :She always shuts the window before dining. Examples Lord's Prayer Patre no, ke ec in sele, ''Sanktifikacj os vo nam ''Vinjec za ni vo regcke ''Os xacj va voluntast ''Tal kak in sele i in tera. ''Pane no todidinav dateječni sevod, ''Vardječni ofenseje neje, ''Tal kak vardamu deti ke ofensojeni. ''Nej laseječni tumbat in temptacja: ''A libereječni od mav. ''Amen. David Copperfield First lines from Charles Dickens' "David Copperfield": Sli jo er turnat po xasitmi xeroj vitav ma, o sli det poste bic okupicj kvalkludvak avtre, eti fojli devrits monstrat. Po incepat ma vit uk incep ma vitav, jo perekordu ke nu (kak jo ut informacj i kredu) na venerdin, in dakdova čas nočvak. Konstotsi ke orloš incepot po stakat, i jo inceput po pjovit, simultanično. Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show. To begin my life with the beginning of my life, I record that I was born (as I have been informed and believe) on a Friday, at twelve o'clock at night. It was remarked that the clock began to strike, and I began to cry, simultaneously. Trainspotting First lines from Irvine Welsh's "Trainspotting": Šojsije vit. Šojsije lavor. Šojsije karera. Šojsije familja. Šojsije putagrac televizor, šojsije mašini po lavat, avti, kompaktj diski igratori i elektrik ovritori latav. Šojsije bon salvet, baxe kolesterol e dental sigurnost. Šojsije perepagamenti xipotekiav uk fixj interesti. Šojsije novj dom. Šojsije tej druzi. Šojsije rope diverticjav i bagaš po kombinat. Šojsije svite uk tre peci na kompre lokacjav in gama putatisicj. Šojsije XTM i po imaginat ko diavle e na matina domenikav. Šojsije sidat na siljon po osistit oblakitori mental, trituratori animav game shows, po stufat putamusorobed na to gubok. Šojsije po oputrefat in fin tod etav, po urinat tej ulti na miseravki asile, nemaj ke razkomfort za nini egoxiztik i xodicj ke tje genrat po remplacat ti mesim. Šojsije to futur. Šojsije vit. Mrs. Dalloway First lines from Virginia Woolf's "Mrs. Dalloway": Mm. Dalloway dišot ke er komprat flovri po jela mesim. Pokav Lucy abot so lavor kortacj po si. Vrati er bit kitacj od sej gonzi; čoveki Rumpelmayerav ecejet po arivat. I lor, pensot Clarissa Dalloway, ke matina - fresk kak sli deliveracj za nini na plaja. Ke aloveta! Ke plongicja! Category:Languages Category:Conlangs